What's going on?
by snowball3
Summary: While hunting for a demon Kuwabara is kidnapped and it is up to his friends to find him before it is too late.
1. Default Chapter

disclaimer: don't own

a/n i added some to the first of this chapter because i did not like how it turned out the first time i hope that this is better. no one told me if i should make this a hiei and kurama paring so i will just see how the story turns out.

"Well, while we are sitting here with nothing to do why don't we tell ghost stories or something," Yuusuke suggested as he stared into the fire.

"I don't know that sounds kind of childish," Kuwabara said.

"Well I don't see you coming up with something to do," Yuusuke snapped at him.

"Calm down, Yuusuke we are here on business not a leisure trip," Kurama said in a logical tone of voice.

"That may be but it is dark right now and there is not much we can do, because I for one am not going to walk around in that forest at night," Yuusuke said as he gestured behind him at the dark silent forest.

"What are you afraid of Yuusuke, that some big bad demon will have you for a midnight snack," Kuwabara taunted.

"No you moron, I just don't fell like fighting anything right now," Yuusuke snapped.

"Will you two shut up," Hiei said in a very annoyed tone of voice, "do you want all of the demon world to come looking for someone to kill?"

"No, but god we are bored what else do you expect us to do?" Yuusuke asked him.

"Sleep," came the cryptic reply as Hiei jumped up into a tree to do just that.

"No, I think, Yuusuke might be onto something," Kurama finally said.

"But I thought that you said that we're here on business not pleasure," Yuusuke reminded him.

"Yes, I did say that but this might just help us relax."

"Ok, then who will go first?"

"How about Hiei?" Kuwabara said as he looked toward the tree that Hiei was in.

"I think not," came the reply.

"No, I think that is an great idea," Kurama told Kuwabara as he got up to walk toward the tree.

"What are you talking about Kurama you know that I don't participate in stupid human activities," Hiei hissed down to him.

"Yes I know but this once won't hurt." Hiei got a thoughtful look on his face before he jumped down from the tree.

"Fine," he said as he walked toward the fire. Thus the beginning of Hiei's story.

In a darken room a young man lays upon a bed asleep, but it is not a restful sleep for you see his nights are filled with nightmares. We enter his dreams to see what kind of nightmares plague him, but we must be careful not to let him know of our presence in his mind. Now turn your head to look and we may be able to see his enemy. As we look on the nightmare plays out. We will start off with him running.

Kuwabara gasped for breath as he ran through the forest. It seemed like forever since he had started running he tried to tell himself that it was just a dream but he could not wake up. He did not know where he was but he knew that something was chasing him. And that something had one thing in mind and that was to kill him. He heard a almost manic scream just yards behind him and he had to suppress a cry of terror. Oh god what's going on what did I do wrong, he continue to think to himself all the while trying to stay one step ahead of the monster behind him. Again there was a bloodcurdling scream behind him but this time it was much closer and as this sound rang out he tripped over a tree branch and went down. Oh god no, he thought as he scrambled to his feet. The blood was pumping so hard through his veins, from terror and adrenalin that he was starting to ache all over, on top of his lungs crying out for air.

"You can run all you want but I'll still get you," a low raspy voice said right by his ear butbefore for he could turn to see who it was he woke up..

Kuwabara let out a terrified scream as he shot straight up in his bed swinging his arms at the unseen threat. His bedroom door shot open and his sister stood there looking at him.

"What's wrong, Kuzama?" Shuzira asked him stepping into his room.

He looked at her and shook his head," It's nothing, sis," he said wiping the cold sweat from his forehead.

She gave him a disbelieving look but she just nodded and closed the door. When he was alone Kuwabara looked out the window and as he did this he thought he saw a pair of red eyes watching him, but when he blinked there was nothing there. But just in case he closed his eyes and tried to sense any ki or something, but he could feel nothing. He finally sighed and laid back down, maybe he had just imagined those eyes, he thought to himself. He rolled over and tried to go back to sleep. He had been having these dreams for quite some time but lately they seemed to be getting worse.

The next morning when he walked down the stairs to get something for breakfast before heading of to school, he saw his sister sitting at the table smoking a cigarette and reading the news.

"How are you doing, baby bro?" she asked him taking the cigarette from her mouth.

"Fine," came his rather tired reply.

"Did you even get back to sleep after your nightmare?"

He shook his head.

"Well if you ever want to talk about it I'm right here," she said in a soft voice putting her hand over his.

"Thanks sis, but I'll be fine."

She shook her head at his stubbornness but again let the matter drop. She looked at the clock and saw that it was time for her to go to work. Shuzira grabbed her wallet, took one last worried look at her brother, and left.

As Kuwabara was walking to school he thought about that nightmare and tried to figure out why that voice sounded so familiar but he just could not place it. He knew that he had heard it many times before but it would just not click who it was. Little did he know that there was a reason that he could not remember. Unbeknownst to him, he was being watched by the being in his dream. And although he was awake the figure was all to real.

"Don't worry you will know soon enough," the something said in its raspy voice.

Later that night Kuwabara was preparing to go to bed, please just let me have a peaceful night, he silently prayed to anyone listening. But luck was not on his side. Again he was back in the strange forest with the feeling of being followed, but somehow he knew that he was about to find out who his stalker was. Again there was a feeling of terror and the rush of adrenaline but this time there was also the certainty that he was going to die. For some reason a root seemed to jump out of ground right at his feet. Kuwabara cried out as he saw the ground raising up to meet him.

"Now I've got you," a familiar voice but some how different voice said.He thought he had figured out who it was, but this voice was to different to be who he thought it was.

Kuwabara reluctantly rolled on to his back. He gasped when he saw who was looking down at him.

a/n like i said at the first i hope this is better. please review


	2. answer

Disclaimer: don't own

I want to thank ShockWaveWolf for my first ever review and I tried to fix the paragraphs but I'm not to good at spacing.

and sorry for leaving you hanging but i was trying to get some response

Ok there is a warning for this chapter if you are easly dissturbed by grapic scenes then don't read.

here goes then

"Hello, Kuwabara," Kurama said giving him a sinister smile.

" Kurama, what are you doing here," Kuwabara asked him in a stunned voice. "I could have sworn that it was Hiei chasing me."

Kurama laughed "Hiei had a meeting with Muroko so he asked me to fill in for him."

"Fill in for him?"

"Yep, he said it was time to finish you off . And since he could not be here as his best friend he asked me to do it for him."

"But what did I ever do to him or you for that matter. I thought you liked me?" Kuwabara asked in an incredulous voice.

"I'm not really sure but he said something about his sister and as for me well, I do like you but you can be rather annoying at times so I figured why not."

"Ok, let me get this straight you like me but you like Hiei better so you are to kill me."

"Yep, that's about it."

Kuwabara just stared at him, he had heard of many reasons for killing someone but this was just to weird. As Kuwabara lay there on the ground thinking about this. Kurama summoned some vines that wrapped around Kuwabara's arms and legs. Then Kurama had them lift him high enough that he could easily get his whip around him. But first he wanted to see how flexible Kuwabara really was. After all if was all part of the torture process.

Kuwabara was so deep in his thoughts that he didn't notice his change in position until he felt himself being lifted and then his arms and legs stretched passed their normal limits. Kuwabara screamed as he felt the muscles in his arms and legs tear.

"Oh, I'm sorry," Kurama said in a sickly sweet voice," did that hurt."

Kuwabara felt his mouth drop open as looked at him," OF COURSE IT HURT," he screamed.

"So sorry why don't I make it where you can't feel any pain in your limbs, hmm," Kurama said uncoiling his whip. He snap it out and wrapped it around Kuwabara's waist. When it was in the right position he put just enough pressure on it to break the skin of Kuwabara's waist but not enough to cut him in half. Kurama continued in this fashion for some time but on various parts of Kuwabara's body, until Kuwabara was getting light headed from the lose of blood.

"Have you had enough?" Kurama asked him.

But Kuwabara by this time could not speak as Kurama had at some point severed his vocal chords, he was just able to give him a hate filled glance.

"Pity, I had hoped that you could last longer than that," Kurama said looking at the young man hanging in front of him. By now the ground was becoming quite soaked from all the blood. The worst injury being jagged cuts on Kuwabara's wrists and neck. As Kurama had been cutting him with the whip the vines that had been holding Kuwabara had grown thorns and had also started cutting him. Kuwabara did not know how he was still alive but he did know that at some point he had started growing colder. Because of the lose of blood Kuwabara had become delirious and was slipping in and out of conciseness. His shirt had also started to turn black and stiff as the blood dried and there was a strong metallic scent in the air. Kurama brought his whip up one last time and swung it to wrap around Kuwabara's neck.

"Goodbye, my friend," he said as he pulled the whip taut cleanly snapping off Kuwabara's head thus causing it to roll across the ground. As Kurama calmly turned and walked away we look back and see the headless body hanging lifeless from the vines and the head forever staring in abject horror of knowing death was coming.

"Hiei, must you be so morbid and plus I'm not annoying. Another thing Kurama would not kill me just because you wanted him to," Kuwabara shouted standing up with his fist raised about to go after Hiei.

"Kuwabara, sit down," Yuusuke said to him reaching up to pull him back down on the log that they were sitting on.

Yuusuke and his friends were currently on a mission to find a demon prisoner that had gotten lose in Maki and was trying to find a way into the human world. Of course Koenma had not had many details for them, just that it would not be a good thing if the demon managed to get into the human world. So they had stopped as the sun was going down to find a place to sleep. Although they could have gone on for a little while longer none of them felt like hunting for the demon in the dark.

So after they had found a good camp site, gathered the firewood and gotten some security measures set up they had had nothing to do except just sit there until they got tired enough to go to sleep. But Yuusuke had suggested that they tell ghost stories or horror stories. Kurama had to coaxed Hiei out of the tree that he had decided to sleep in. But his condition had been that he go first even though he said that telling stories was stupid. When he had asked what changed his mind he said that he had had a brainstorm. So had come the Kuwabara killing story.

"Well does anyone else have a story to tell?" Kurama asked looking around at everyone.

"Not me." Yuusuke said. "I think Hiei told enough for all of us."

"True." Kurama replied looking at Hiei who had a self satisfied smirk on his face but when he noticed Kurama looking at him he got the familiar bad tempered expression on his face.

"Hn, I thought that it was a good story," he said defending himself.

"No, it was not shrimp," Kuwabara yelled getting to his feet yet again. Looking like he would love to do to Hiei what he had done to him in the story.

"You just think so because it involved you."

"Yeah and you would have not liked it if someone had told a story like that about you either."

"I wouldn't care 'cause I'm not as uptight as you."

"Why you bastard," Kuwabara cried charging at Hiei who flitted in the other direction.

"Come back here."

Kurama sighed as he watched them. "You would think that as long as Kuwabara has known him he would not let Hiei get to him." he said looking at Yuusuke.

Yuusuke nodded in agreement as Kuwabara run by them still chasing Hiei. Every time Kuwabara would get close enough to touch Hiei, Hiei would just step back. This went on for some time because Kuwabara just did not know when to quit. They circled the log for a few minutes before Kurama got tired of it and stuck his foot out to trip Hiei. Because Hiei had not expected Kurama to interfere he could not avoid the foot that Kurama had stuck out, so he tripped and went flying. Hiei had been going pretty fast so he flew quite a ways, but he managed to catch himself before he flew head long into a tree.

"God dang it, Kurama, why did you do that?" Hiei asked sounding confused and quite angry with Kurama.

"Because we are here for a reason and I thought you were more mature than to act like that."

"Hn, I was just having fun with the idiot," he said giving Kuwabara a death glare.

"I am not an idiot," Kuwabara cried again raising to the bait.

Kurama groaned dropping his head into his hands. "Kuwabara will you just go to bed," he said his voice muffled.

"Why are you treating me like a child?" he asked sounding that much more angry.

"Kuwabara just go to bed, please."

Kuwabara walked of griping about people not answering his questions but he went to bed just the same.

"Jezz, Kurama what is your problem?" Yuusuke asked.

"Nothing, Yuusuke," Kurama said to him sounding tired all of a sudden.

Yuusuke gave him a disbelieving look but he let it drop and he too went to bed.

please review


	3. crawly

disclaimer: don't own

Ok for anyone still reading this sorry it took so long for me to update. although i am thinking of just deleting this all togather but on with the story.

After Yuusuke left, Kurama walked over to the tree that Hiei had moved into when Kuwabara had gone to bed.

"Hiei, would you like to take walk with me?" Kurama asked Hiei, looking up at him.

Hiei looked at him for a few moments before he gave a slight nod of his head and jumped out of the tree. As they turned to walk out of the clearing Kuwabara opened his eyes to see where they were going. He gave a small smile as he got up to follow them. He was hoping that maybe he could pay Hiei back for making a fool out of him. Of course he ignored the fact that he had started the entire fight.

As Kurama and Hiei walked toward the small stream that they were camped near, Hiei tried to think of a way to bring up the topic that had been bugging him. As he had said in that story that he had told, Kurama was his best friend or as close to a best friend Hiei would let someone get. He knew that he wasn't wanted by his own people and he was aware that the thieves that had raised him just considered him another mouth to feed. But Kurama was probably the first that had ever treated him as someone of importance, so if something was wrong with him then he would at least like to try and help him. Finally Hiei decided just to come out and ask him what was wrong.

"Kurama, is everything alright?" Hiei asked stopping to look at him.

"Why do you ask," Kurama said stopping also.

"Well earlier you sounded, I don't know, weary, I guess is the word I'm looking for."

Kurama raised an eyebrow, but he seemed to be thinking of an answer. As he was doing this he continue walking to the stream. By the time they reached the stream Hiei was starting to think that he wasn't going to answer him, but Kurama moved to sit on a boulder near the stream and motioned for Hiei to do the same. When Hiei sat down by him Kurama seemed to make up his mind about what he was going to tell him.

"Well, I really don't want to sound like I'm whining or felling sorry for myself," Kurama started.

But Hiei interrupted, "Well will you just get on with it," he snapped starting to regret asking.

Kurama gave him a vague smile and said, "Hiei, just be patient I'm not used to putting my thought into words."

Hiei gave him a disbelieving look, "I thought you were close to your human mother?"

"I am but there are just some things that I can't talk to her about. And for a long time I thought that she did not deserve my attention, much less know how to help me with my problems. Now should I continue or do you have something else to say," Kurama said.

"Well, if your going to be a jackass about it then I could care less," Hiei snapped making as to get up.

"Wait, Hiei," Kurama said reaching out to grab Hiei's hand," Look I'm sorry I know how much it took for you to ask. I have just been under a lot of pressure at home."

Hiei snorted in anger but he sat down anyways pulling his hand away from Kurama with a slight blush on his face, but Kurama did not notice because he was still trying to find the right way to express himself. Hiei came back to himself as Kurama started talking.

"What's wrong is that my stepfather has started asking questions about all the school trips that I seem to go on and that of course is making my mom wonder also. So when I told her that I had to leave out again and that it was with some nature club that I had joined, she called the school and asked them about it. They of course told her the truth. So now I have lost the trust of the most important person in my life and I have no idea of a way to get her to trust me again, especially after I snuck out to come for this mission. I left a note telling her that I was leaving but that was probably not the way to go about it," Kurama gave a somewhat relived sigh when he finished.

Hiei could only nod after Kurama finished, because after all how could he give Kurama advice on a subject that he to was having problems with. For this whole thing sounded a little like what the situation between his sister and him would probably be like. He had not told his sister that he was the brother that she had been looking for because he did not want her to hate or even worse reject him. He felt that the present arrangement better suited the both of them. It was easier having a friend with a criminal past than it was a brother. He knew also that if he told her the truth, Kuwabara would find out and he might just hold it against her, but with his line of thinking that probably not happen. Or, as Hiei would like to think, be to scared of Hiei to go near her.

Hiei looked at Kurama as he tried to decide what to say to him, but as he opened his mouth to say something, Kurama put his index finger on his lips signaling for him to be quite. When he gave him a questioning look Kurama just shook his head as he looked toward the forest on their left.

"I think there is something or someone watching us," Kurama said in a very quite whisper.

Hiei closed his eyes and concentrated on a possible energy source. But he could not sense anything that could be a threat. Hiei looked at Kurama, who was waiting for him to get through. And he shook his head indicating that he could sense nothing of a threatening nature. But even though he could not sense anything did not mean that it wasn't just hiding it's energy. As one they got off the rock and slowly crept toward the source of disturbance.

Kuwabara stifled a gasp as he saw them get up and walk toward where he was hiding. As they got closer he slowly crept backwards doing sort of a crab walk trying to keep them in his sights. He could not believe his luck it had taking him quite a while getting past Kurama's plants and he figured that the only reason that he got by them was because they recognized him as a friend of Kurama's. Kuwabara had been training with Kurama and Hiei learning how to mask his ki, so he figured that since they had not shouted out his name then he had been successful in masking it, but now he had to get away before they found him. He nearly let out a scream as he put his hand down on something warm and wriggling. When he finally got the courage to look down he saw that is was a foot long demon worm and that it looked like it was trying to eat his fingers. Kuwabara let out a shill scream, forgetting as he did so that he was trying to keep from being seen. As he jumped up of the ground he collided with Hiei who had rushed over to where he had heard someone scream and Hiei slammed his forehead right into Kuwabara's breast bone. When this happened it caused a sharp pain to shoot through his jagan eye. Hiei let out a string of curses that would have made a sailor blush as he called Kuwabara every name that he had ever heard in the demon world and the human world. Kuwabara was to busy trying to get the creature off of him to pay attention to what Hiei was calling him. But it was a good thing that he hadn't been listening to Hiei because he would have been very insulted because he knew that his parents where indeed married when they had had him.

Kurama stepped forward and grabbed Kuwabara's hand to stop him from shaking it. As he looked at the demon hooked on Kuwabara's finger he saw that it was just a baby worm that was trying get some nourishment.

"Hold still, Kuwabara, it won't hurt you too much."  
"What do you mean to much," Kuwabara shrieked as he started shaking his hand again.

"Kuwabara, if you don't stop moving I will be forced to knock you out," Kurama snapped as he dodged Kuwabara's hand for the fifth time. Kuwabara froze as he heard the tone of Kurama's voice. For Kurama very rarely let his emotions get the better of him, but when he did it was best to just stay out of his way. When Kurama finally disconnected the worm from Kuwabara's finger a green nasty smelling puss started ozzing from the wound. When Hiei saw the puss he got an almost intoxicated look on his face, but he tried to turn away before the others had a chance to see his face. But he had indeed been seen, though Kurama said nothing only turning to tend to the wound. Kuwabara was to busy whining to notice anything that was going on around him. Kurama stored away the thought intent on asking Hiei about it later. By the time Kurama had gotten all the puss off of Kuwabara's fingers and onto a leaf, he saw that it had only burned his flesh a little.

"What's in that puss?" Yuusuke asked leaning closer to look at the wound.  
"It has a compound of acid and a neutralizer," Kurama replied.

"If it is an acid why does it have a neutralizer in it also?"

"Because the babies can't handle the full effect of the acid. So their saliva is a mixture; it has the acid, but it also has a tiny amount of the neutralizer, it may take longer to desolve the flesh and bones but it keeps them from killing themselves in the process."

"Okayy.." Yuusuke said but he still looked puzzled.

Kurama just shook his head at Yuusuke confusion, but he did not fell like explaining it farther to him. After all they all really needed to get to bed because they had a long day ahead of them.

"Let's get to bed, Yuusuke, we have a ways to go tomorrow," Kurama said turning back to check on Kuwabara's finger to make sure that there wasn't an infection.

When Kurama turned back to face Yuusuke he saw that he had already gone back to bed, and Kurama could not sense Hiei so he decided to let the matter drop for the night but he was going to find out what was wrong even if he had to tie Hiei down to get the answers from him. As Kurama was laying down, Hiei was about a mile away waiting for everyone to go to bed so he could try and get that worm or at least his saliva.


	4. location

disclamier: i don't own yu yu hakusho

a/n it has been awhile since i have updated this. i was going to delete it but i forgot about it and someone told me that they liked it so i might just finish this. i don't encourge the use of drugs this is just how the story came out so before hand i,m sorry if this offends any one.

thanks for the review tmntyyh i don't know if you are still reading this but here is the update you asked for hope it doesn't suck to bad.

The next morning when Kurama woke up he saw that Hiei was back and he had started a fire for their breakfast. When Hiei noticed that Kurama was awake he pull out a cup and poured him some tea. As he was handing Kurama the cup his cloak sleeve pulled up reveling a long reddish burn running up Hiei's forearm.

"What is this?" Kurama asked him grabbing a hold of Hiei's arm to get a better look.

"It's nothing," Hiei snapped as he pulled his arm away from Kurama.

"No, Hiei, that is not nothing. Now you avoided my questions last night but you are not going to this time," Kurama said as he moved closer to Hiei.

But Hiei just hunched his shoulders and turned away from Kurama. Kurama swallowed a frustrated sigh when he saw Hiei do this. He reached over and grabbed Hiei by the arm and forced him to turn and face him.

"Hiei, just tell me what is going on. I don't want to see you hurting yourself," Kurama told in a soft voice as he leaned closer to him.

Finally Hiei looked up at him, and what Kurama saw in his eyes made the breath catch in his throat.

"What's wrong, Hiei, what's going on?" Kurama asked him again.

"Fine, that worm is a drug to some demons. It has been a few years since I have seen one I had thought that I had gotten over my addication of them, but seeing it last night just brought out all of the craving again," Hiei said in a voice that almost said that he was ashamed to be telling Kurama something like this to him.

"Oh," Kurama said as he tried to think of what to say to Hiei, but he could think of nothing that would help him so he did the only thing that came to mind, he wrapped his arms around him and gave him a hug. At first Hiei stiffened but as he grew use to the touch he relaxed in Kurama's embrace. They sat there for what seemed like forever before they heard sounds of somebody waking up. They quickly pulled apart before they were caught in a position neither one of them felt like explaning.

By time Yuusuke got around to looking up Kurama and Hiei were a respective able distance apart.

"Good morning, Kurama, Hiei," Yuusuke said as he stretched and let out a loud yawn.

"Morning," Kurama said as he looked up from where he was taking out their food for cooking. Hiei just grunted as he went about doing what ever he had been doing. When Yuusuke came back from doing his morning routine Kuwabara was still sleeping, so he walked over to him and was about to wake him a very violent way when Kurama told him to leave him alone that he would wake Kuwabara up. Yuusuke gave him a shocked looked when he noticed Hiei looking at him. Oh, so that's how Kurama knew what he was going to do.

Kurama got up and walked over to Kuwabara, "Kuwabara, it's time to get up," he said him as he nudged him with his foot, Kuwabara just rolled over to his other side and kept on sleeping.

"It's going to take more than that to wake him up," Hiei told him.

"I see, well then it is a good thing that he has use here to watch his back, then isn't it," Kurama said as he pulled a seed from his hair. When Yuusuke gave him a puzzled look Kurama just shook his head and motioned for him to watch. Kurama grew to plant out and let it move slowly around Kuwabara's arms and legs gently lifting him up and then he grew them out farther, so that he could get him to the stream. But instead of dropping him into the water Kurama turned his wrist, so that Kuwabara was upside down before he lowered him slowly toward the water. The sound of running water so close to his head must of woken him up because he came to just before his hair hit the water.

"What the heck is going on?" Kuwabara shouted when he noticed the position that he was in. When he saw who was holding him he got even more offended..

"Oi, what are you doing, Kurama, I thought you were better than playing petty tricks on people?" Kuwabara asked as he was lowered to the ground.

"Gomen, Kuwabara, but I was just wanting to show you that even though you are surrounded by friends, and you were hurt last night you still need to keep your guard up," Kurama told him as he helped him up off the ground.

"Your right, Kurama," Kuwabara said as he looked at the ground in shame, "But I am trying, so thank you I will try to do better."

Kurama nodded as he turned to go back to their camp leaving Kuwabara on the shore to think about what he had said. Hiei looked disappointed that he did not see Kuwabara dropped into the water but he said nothing. Kuwabara walked back to camp looking at his hand trying to see if it had gotten worst, but he couldn't tell. Kurama noticed him looking at his hand and he motioned for him to step closer, so he could looked at it.

"It looks much better, Kuwabara," he told him, "but tell me, did you get any kind of weird reaction from the bite?" Hiei gave Kurama a startled look before he quickly looked away, he could not believe that Kurama would ask such a question after what he had told him this morning. Kuwabara did not notice this exchange, because he was looking at his hand.

"Nope, the only thing that I felt was pain, why?" he asked as he looked back at Kurama.

"No reason I was just wondering," Kurama told him waving it off as curiosity.

Yuusuke had however noticed Hiei looking at Kurama and there did seemed to be some sort of strange vibes he was getting from the two of them, but he decided that the best course of action would be to ignore it for now and ask them about it later. Yuusuke turned to helping Hiei get breakfast ready so they could leave as soon as possible.

When everybody was ready to go they gathered up all their stuff making sure that there was nothing left behind to give away their presence to anyone that happened by. As they were walking through the forest Hiei fell farther back from everybody hoping that Kurama would get the hint and join him, because he did not feel like asking him to do it. Kurama had figured that Hiei would want to talk to him after the comment he had made to Kuwabara, so he had been waiting for the signal from him. When Kurama feel back with him Hiei looked up at him.

"I'm sorry if I made you mad by asking Kuwabara that question this morning, but I was curious to see if the worm would have the same effect on humans that it does on demons," Kurama told Hiei looking straight ahead.

"Hn, I guess it is a valid point, but they well start to wonder if you ask to many questions," Hiei said.

"Yeah, your right, after all I don't need it to get back to my mother that I was asking about the effects drugs have on people. After all I'm already on her watch list I don't need her to think that I'm thinking of taking drugs. But I don't think that Yuusuke and Kuwabara connected my asking about the affects the worm had on Kuwabara to that of a drug."

Hiei said nothing just looked to where Yuusuke and Kuwabara where examining a strange purple plant.

"Kurama, I think you need to go hold their hands or something because they are about to get eaten by that plant," Hiei told Kurama nodding toward the pair.

Kurama looked to where Hiei indicated and let out a surprised gasp," Yuusuke, don't touch that," he called out as he hurried over to them. While Kurama was lecturing them about the importance of having knowledge about something before you touch it, Hiei took to the trees to scout ahead for potential danger.

"Does it fell weird to any one else?" Yuusuke asked as he looked around the gloomy forest.

"What do you mean?" Kurama said as he too looked around. He could sense that something was not right, but he wanted to make sure that he was not the only one.

"Well it seems like something is pressing in on me making want to run this place as fast as I can," Yuusuke told him as he rubbed his arms.

"I know what you mean," Kuwabara said as he stepped closer to Kurama.

"It seems that we have stepped into some demon's territory, and they don't want us to be here."

"In that case why don't we just move on," Kuwabara said.

"First lets make sure that it is not the demon that we are looking for," Kurama reminded him.

"Right," Kuwabara said with a sheepish laugh. They spread out and looked around the area but they weren't able to find any thing, so they moved on.

The deeper they walked into the Maka forest it became clear that something was not right there was a strange energy lingering in the air that they could not place. It was not the energy that they encountered before but something different, something that they could not place.

"Where's Hiei?" Yuusuke asked when he realized that the little demon was not with them.

"He went to look ahead, and see if he could spot the demon or any potential enemies," Kurama told him as he ducked under a low hanging branch. They were getting farther into the forest and it seemed like something was waiting for them, but none of them could sense anything.

Hiei frowned as he looked over the forest with his jagan eye, he couldn't see anything but he knew that there was something was waiting for them. Hiei closed his eye and went down to meet with the rest of his team to see if they had been able to find anything since he could not. When he got back to where his team mates were it was to find that they had had no luck either.

"Well what so we, do we keep walking in this direction or do we try a different direction?" Yuusuke asked Kurama.

"Lets just keep going the way we are going, With the energy we are picking up we should stumble upon something eventually," Kurama told him. Yuusuke nodded and kept walking.

Although they were expecting to find something what they did find came as a complete shock. They had stumbled upon the remains of a half eaten decomposing body of a human. It seemed that they were to late the demon had succeeded in his plans to get into the human world.

"Damn it if he got into the human world why did he drag it back here to eat it?" Yuusuke shouted as he tried to keep his breakfast from making a return visit.

"It seems that he did not fell comfortable in the human world so he drug his prey back here to eat it in peace," Kurama said.

"We have to find this thing before it can hurt any body else," Kuwabara said trying to keep from looking at the gruesome site.

Everyone of them, execpt Hiei, had felt a moment of panic, because they had people in the human world that they wanted to protect. When Yuusuke got over his shock he pulled out his com unit to contact Koenma to let him know of the latest devlopements. When Koenma heard the news he told them that he was sending Boton to pick them up, but only when they got back to the human world.

this was looked over but we might have missed some mistakes.


	5. 5

disclaimer: don't own

a/n: sorry it has taken me so long to update but i couldn't think of anything else to write. normally i would havequit writing a story by now because i get bored with writing it but for the people that like this story i will tryand finish it because i hate for people to leave a story hanging.hopefully this is at least an okay chapter but i'm to tried to add more to it right now hopefully my next update won't take so long. alsothere is more than likely occ in here, but i am trying to keep them in character

Koenma hadfigured out away for them to create a portal to transport a least four people between worlds, so that he would not have to do it for them every time they needed to get to the demon world. While they waited for the portal to get big enough to to transport all of them they examined the area around them for clues about the demon. But they could find nothing that would give them any clues about the demon or where the demon might be headed next. They figured though that they could look around the human world and find out how many humans the demon had killed and where he was getting them. They hoped that the demon was sticking close to his portal point therefore making it easier for them to capture him before anymore people died.

When they stepped through to the human world they could immediately sense that something was wrong. They dropped into a defensive stance and looked around them.

"There seems to be nothing here," Yuusuke said as he straightened up.

"There may seem to be nothing here but something was here not to long ago," Kurama told him.

"Do you think is was the demon that we are looking for?" Kuwabara asked.

"No, it feels like him, but then again it doesn't," Kurama told Kuwabara.

"What do you mean it feels like him but it doesn't?" Kuwabara asked him.

"He means that it was probably a servant of his," Hiei said as if Kuwabara was the biggest idiot in the world.

"I'm sorry, but I'm not from the demon world so you need to explain to me how a servant of a demon can have almost the same energy pattern as his master," Kuwabara demanded.

"Well, in some cases a demon marks a servant as his so he will be able to find them wherever they go. He will also be able to kill them if they are about to betray him. Not all demons have this power though, so whoever we are looking for will be easy to spot now that we know what we are up against," Kurama explained.

"You mean to tell me that this demon can see through his servants eyes or whatever you said?" Kuwabara asked as he looked around the clearing in suspicion.

"Yes that is basically what begin able to find them means," Kurama replied.

"Ok, I think I understand now," Kuwabara told him.

"Now lets all spread out so we can examine this place and get going," Yuusuke said as he motioned for everybody to split up in different directions. Before they could get started though they heard somebody calling out to them.

"Hey, somebody called for a pick up," Boton called out to them as she flew down from the sky.

"Yeah, we did but first we think we might have found out where the demon has been getting into human world at," Yuusuke told her.

"Oh, and where might that be?" she asked.

"Right here," Yuusuke replied as he waved his hand to indicate the clearing that they where standing in.

"But how can you be sure that this is where the demon came in from?" Boton asked.

"Because when we came through the portal into the human world this is where we ended up. Also when we were in the demon world we found the half eaten body of a young human," Yuusuke told her.

Boton let out a gasp when Yuusuke told her this, "Are you serious?" she asked.

Yuusuke nodded. "This is worse than we thought," Boton said.

"What do you mean worse than you thought?" Kurama asked.

Boton looked at Kurama, "Well it indicates that the demon has somehow had his eating habits altered," she told him.

"Wait are you saying that this demon did not originally eat humans?" Yuusuke asked her

"That's exactly what I'm saying," Boton said.

"But what has the ability to do that?" Kuwabara asked.

"It all depends on the type of demon first, and then on what they eat," Boton replied.

"I think I know what you are talking about," Kurama told her.

"Do you have an idea of what might have caused this?" she asked him.

"Yes, I do. If I remember correctly there is a certain type of Makia plant that when eaten will do quite a bit of damage to the inside of a demon," Kurama said with a thoughtful look on his face.

"But it couldn't have been that plant because the demon is still alive," Yuusuke pointed out.

"Sorry what I meant was it depends on the type of demon. Some demons would slowly die, while others will become an almost different demon. I don't know what type of demon this was so I can't be absolutely certain, but it seems that this is the case," Kurama explained.

"Well now that we have that cleared up lets finish looking around before we head to the spirit world," Yuusuke suggested. So they all split off like they had planned to before Boton showed up. After a few minutes of searching Kuwabara called for everybody's attention.

"Hey, guys, look over here," Kuwabara called out from where he had walking around near the edge of the clearing that they had landed in.

"What is it?" Yuusuke asked as he hurried over to where Kuwabara was.

"It seems to be some kind of newspaper," he answered as he bent to pick it up.

"So, what does that have to do with anything, it could have come from anywhere," Yuusuke said.

"Well, you never know maybe it could give us clues as to where the demon might be going," Kuwabara told him just as his hand touched the paper. It seemed that when Kuwabara touched the paper it sent on a link to something, because there was a bright flash of light and when everybody could see again Kuwabara was gone.

"What the hell happened?" Yuusuke cried.

"It seems that the paper was a trap, so it was the danger that we sensed when we came through," Kurama said as he hurried over to examine the site where Kuwabara had been standing.

"A trap?" Hiei asked as he too walked over.

"Yes it seems that the demon targets people that are curious enough to pick up something just to see what it is."

Hiei didn't say anything as he walked around sensing for demon energy.

"Do either one of you remember how old that human was that we saw in the demon world?" Kurama asked as he looked around some more.

"I think it was about sixteen or seventeen years old from what was left of the face," Yuusuke answered.

Kurama nodded," Just as I thought, he is targeting the younger of the humans. My guess is because the meat probably taste better."

At this Yuusuke turned green and grabbed his mouth, "Kurama must you say that. That is disgusting."  
"Sorry, but you have been around enough demons that eat humans to know what they are like. Now lets try and find Kuwabara before he becomes the next meal for the demon," Kurama told Yuusuke as he turned to leave the clearing.

"But I thought you all were heading to the demon world?" Boton asked Kurama.

Kurama stopped and looked at her with a surprised look on his face. "We were, but as you just saw Kuwabara has been taken. I think it is more important to find him than to go see Koenma," Kurama told her before he continued walking out of the clearing.

"I'll go with you then that way when you are ready to go I can take you," Boton told them.

"I would say just let the demon have him but I know how much Yukina likes the idiot," Hiei said finally speaking up about Kuwabara's predicament, but it wasn't what anyone wanted to here.

"Yes that is very considerate of you, Hiei," Yuusuke said to him, but if he heard the sarcasm in his voice Hiei gave no sign. As he turned to follow Kurama, Hiei felt like something was coming up behind him, but when he turned to see what it was, there was nothing there. Hiei frowned as he opened up his jagan to see if anything was hiding in the bushes.

"Hiei, what's taking you, lets go we need to find that demon before he does something to Kuwabara," Yuusuke hollered at him when he realized that Hiei was not behind him.

Hiei rewrapped his jagan eye and left to catch up with them. But he only left though because he couldn't sense any type of danger or demon energy.

After Hiei left there was a rustling in the bushes he had just been looking at.

"You idiot, the boss did not give us these special warding powers just so you can give our location away," a small dark creature snapped as he knocked his companion on the back of the head.

"I'm sorry, but you know my vision is not the best at night," he whined as he grabbed the back of his head.

"Yes, which is why I tried to make you stay at our camp."

"But you know that I don't like begin out in the woods by myself."

"Whatever, lets just go and retrieve the human. Our master has been getting more and more hungry since he ate that weird plant, but unfortunately for us it is not normal food he is hungry for."

"Well if you ask me he should have just stayed locked up in the spirit world. We were a lot better off when he was."

"Don't say that unless you want him to kill you."

"Sorry," the whiny one muttered as he dropped his head.

The darker demon grabbed his companion's arm and took off back to where the human had been dropped by the trap.


	6. 6

disclaimer: don't own

a/n: i am glad there is at least two people who like this story. again sorry for taking so long to update but real life got in the way. and to tel lthe truth it is kind of frusting not getting reviews but I won't ask for a certain amount before I update. The time I take to update depends on if I have the time and the energy to write. I want to say thank you to tmntyyh for her reviews.I will say that Kuwabara is not my favorite character either but it is more his voice and his attuidue that get on my nerves, but I do like some of the things he stands up for.

While they were walking through the forest, Kurama was thinking about Kuwabara's situation. With Kuwabara captured by the demon, maybe Hiei could communicate with him to find out where they had taken him, Kurama was thinking to himself. But it all depended on how strong Kuwabara's mind was, because if he was not strong enough to communicate telepathically then there might be irreversible damage done to him. When Kurama reached his decision he looked behind him to see if he could get Hiei's attention. But when he looked Hiei was nowhere to be found.

"Yuusuke, have you seen Hiei?" Kurama asked Yuusuke turning his head to where Yuusuke was standing.

"I thought he was right behind us," Yuusuke replied also looking behind them.

Kurama frowned; well I guess we will just have to wait for him to come back, Kurama thought as he faced forward again.

Meanwhile Hiei was again standing on top of a tree with his jagan eye opened trying to catch at least a little glimmer of Kuwabara's aura. But something was blocking him from making a connection with him. Hiei rewarded his jagan and jumped out of the trees to catch up with Kurama and Yuusuke. When he caught up with them he found them examining an odd tree.

"What are you doing?" he asked as he looked on in bewilderment. After all they were supposed to be looking for any sign of Kuwabara not admiring the local foliage.

"Oh, there you are Hiei, we were just looking for you," Kurama said as he spun around to face him. Kurama had clearly been caught off guard because he had a very startled look on his face before he guarded his expression again.

"Well, what are you fools doing?" Hiei asked again sounding put out that Kurama had not answered his question immediately.

"What are we doing?" Kurama parroted, before he remembered the question that Hiei had asked previously and what he had been doing before Hiei had interrupted him.

Before Kurama could answer him Yuusuke spoke up. "Kurama suggested that we examine the trees and plants to see if any of them could have been used as a conductor for the portal."

Hiei looked at them like they were crazy. In all his years he had never heard of such a ridiculous thing. Because every time he had encountered a portal it had been made of pure spiritual or demonic power passing through nothing but time and space.

"Ok, either you two have completely lost your minds, or I'm missing something here," Hiei finally said.

"It's like this Hiei because the demon is probably in unfamiliar territory then he does not know how to keep his power from going hay wire. So I figure that he is using a plant or something to ground himself and to help control the portal."

"So in other words you think this might be the place that Kuwabara was dropped by the portal," Hiei said

Kurama looked a little put out that Hiei had broken down his explanation like he did, but he let it go. "Right," Kurama said turning back to his examination. Yuusuke also turned back to what ever he had been doing, but he looked like he didn't have a clue what he was looking for. Now that Hiei had another lead on the demon maybe he could finally lock onto his energy pattern. Hiei once again opened his jagan and almost at once he noticed a faint trace of power. He followed it to its source and he saw that Kurama was right the demon had been using a plant as his ground. He caught Kurama's attention and pointed him in the right direction. When they got to the tree that Hiei had indicated Kurama let out a gasp of pain and fell to his knees holding his head.

"What's wrong, Kurama?" Yuusuke asked as he hurried over to Kurama's side.

"I don't know," Kurama said in a voice that sounded like he had to force it to work.

"Let me look," Hiei told as he opened his jagan once again, but Kurama violently shook his head throwing up a barrier so Hiei could not enter.

"No, Hiei, it's too dangerous," Kurama said panting with the effort of keeping the barrier up and the pain in check.

"Well, tell us what's wrong," Hiei demanded.

"I don't know, but it seems that there is something on the tree preventing anyone from getting information from it," Kurama answered as he slowly backed away from the tree trying not to move his head to much.

"So, you are telling me that even though we know where the portal is we can't do any thing with it?" Hiei asked his annoyance getting the better of him.

"No, that is not what I'm saying we can still get information from the tree, but we have to break the hold the demon has on it before we can," Kurama told him, his voice sounding much stronger now that he was away from the tree.

"Ok, then how do we do that?" Yuusuke asked.

"Maybe he should try and trick the tree into thinking that he is the one that blocked it that way it won't cause him pain when he gets near it," Boton finally spoke up from where she had been hovering up in the air out of the way.

"And how do you suggest he do that," Hiei snapped looking up at her like she had lost her mind.

"Well, he can try and match his energy pattern with that of the demon, therefore he basically becomes the demon to the tree," Boton told Hiei sounding just a tiny bit smug.

Hiei grunted and stomped over to the tree, "How 'bout I instead start chopping off branches until it give us what we want," he suggested pulling out his katana.

"I don't think that is necessary, Hiei," Kurama said dryly as he reached over to push the katana down.

"Why not?" Hiei snapped as he turned to glare at Kurama.

"Well, for one thing even though technically the tree is alive I don't think it would respond to torture. Another thing is even if the plant did respond it would still have the block on it and I would not be able to communicate with it without a lot of pain."

"Whatever, do it your own way then, I never wanted to rescue Kuwabara anyway," Hiei growled as he turned and disappeared into the forest.

"What is his problem?" Yuusuke asked as he looked toward were Hiei had disappeared. Nobody answered, because after all the only one who knew what the problem was, was Hiei himself. Kurama though did tell himself that he would track Hiei down later and get to the bottom of his anger. Meanwhile he was going to try and alter his energy just enough to get through to the tree.

Kuwabara looked around the area where he had thought he had come out of the portal at. It was a heavily forested area with little to no light breaking through the canopy of the forest. He started when he heard the sounds of someone walking his way. As Kuwabara quickly looked around for a place to hide he realized that he was tied to a tree. He struggled to get himself free, but the more he struggled it seemed the tighter the rope got. Finally he slumped panting from the exertion of struggling to get free, and because the ropes had so tight they were cutting into his chest.

"So, you are awake," came a low raspy voice on his left. Kuwabara jerked in surprise as he tried to turn and see who his capture was, but because of the rope he could not turn his head far enough.

"Have you been trying to get free?" the voice inquired sounding like he was getting closer to his ear. Kuwabara shook his head felling panic rising up as he felt hot breath on his neck. He just knew that he was about to become the demon's next meal. But all he felt at first was a strange wetness against his pulse, and then he felt sharp teeth sinking into his neck.

Sorry for the cliff hanger but that seemed to be the best place to stop. I am working on the next chapter and hopfully I can have it out in about a week or two but I amnot making any promises. If you see any mistakes please tell me because I looked over my fourth chapter and I saw a few, but I think it is more this website than my editing because it looked fine on my computer.


	7. 7

disclaimer:don't own

a/n: I got this written sonner than I thought I would. This chapter foucses on Kuwabara and the demons that kidnapped him. I tried to keep him in character but I don't think it worked, but before you complain think about the situation he is in.

Before Kuwabara could even try and jerk away from the teeth he heard a voice that sounded far away, talking. That was when he remembered that almost as soon as he had hit the ground a dark figure had jumped onto his back and had stuck something into his neck. He forced himself to wake up so he could hear what the demon was saying to him.

"Humans are so pathetic all you need is a weak mind and you can plant any thing you want into it," a small dark skinned demon said to Kuwabara as he stepped into his line of sight.

Kuwabara weakly lifted his head and glared at the demon," If you had not drugged me then you would not have been able to enter my mind," Kuwabara spat as he tried to keep from passing out again.

"I will just let you keep thinking that," the demon sneered, "meanwhile me and my companion will get you ready for my master to eat."

Kuwabara watched as the demon walked away before he looked around where they were holding him. Usually he would have flown into the demon, but right now it was all he could do to keep awake. The drugs they had given him must have been pretty strong because it was now dark out, and he was in an area that he was unfamiliar with. From what he could see from where he was sitting, there was nothing but trees for miles around. He couldn't see any city lights over the horizon so he figured that they had moved him farther into the woods. There was a small campfire with a pot of something very smelly cooking. Kuwabara could only sit and hope that his teammates would be able to find him before the demon decided that he was hungry for some human meat.

As he was sitting there trying to think of a plan of escape he heard a strange cackling sound coming from the direction of the campfire. When he looked up he saw that a weird looking puke green demon had joined the first, and it looked like to him that those demons were more than teammates. Kuwabara thought he was hallucinating at first when he saw them kissing, but it was not any kind of kissing that Kuwabara had ever seen in his life. It seemed more like to him two lizards fighting for one tongue. 'Oh god if they are trying to gross me out then they are doing a good job,' Kuwabara thought to himself as he watched them. He tried to turn away so he would not have to see that, but he was forced to look again when he heard a strange creaking noise. When he looked again the demons had gotten into the pot of boiling liquid and were doing some kind of strange dance. The dance involved a lot of rocking back and forth, spinning in circles around each other, and some kind of strange chanting. All the while they were doing this, green slimy liquid was spilling out of the pot turning the fire into a strange shade of yellow, and Kuwabara was trying to figure out how they were keeping their balance and how they could stand such a hot environment. The more Kuwabara watched the more confused he grew until finally the demons disappeared all together leaving only a green cloud of smoke in their wake. Before he could even think that they had left, a demon roughly about seven feet tall was standing where the first two had been. The demon climbed out of the pot and walked naked over to where a large fur was laying folded on the ground. When the demon tied it around his waist, he spun to face Kuwabara. Kuwabara struggled to contain a gasp when he got a good look at the demon's face and chest. His face looked like it was divided into two parts. The first part was real droopy and sagging looking. While on the second side the skin was pulled so tight against the skull that Kuwabara could easily count the individual bones. He could also see that the demon had almost no hair just a small patch over each of his ears. His ears were some of the strangest things he had ever seen. They were rounded at the lobe of the ear and pointed at the top. They were also folded over like that of a droopy dog's ears. And on top of his head there was a large horn that was folded over to form a half circle with the point of the horn almost touching to top of the demons head. Put all together it formed a rather grotesque picture. The demon's chest was also pretty strange in that the breastbone was rather prominent in some places. His skin was also the same as his face except it was switched around. The droopy part was on the right while the tight part was on the left. All in all it looked exactly like someone had tried to combine the two beings together, but had been into to big of a hurry to do it properly.

Unbeknownst to Kuwabara while he had been studying the changes to the demon, the demon had been walking toward him.

"So, human are you ready to be tenderized," the giant demon asked Kuwabara, scaring the crap out of him.

"Um, what do you mean tenderized?" Kuwabara asked in an uneasy tone while his heart slowed back down to a reasonable pace.

"Why, I mean that our master does not like his humans to be to tough so we make mush out of the insides. That way when he gets ready to eat, all we have to do is throw you into a fire and you will be done in seconds."

"Ok, before you 'tenderize' me why don't you tell me what you and your freaky friend were doing in that pot," Kuwabara demanded trying to hold out long enough for his friends to find him.

"Now why would you want to know that," the mixed demon asked.

"I don't, maybe because I'm curious about what you were doing."

"Fine I guess I can tell you, but it's not like it will do you a bit of good, because by the time you are done stalling me my master will have already been here and ready for his evening meal," the demon said as he walked over to crouch in front of Kuwabara.

Kuwabara's eyes widened as he realized that the demon wasn't wearing anything in the way of underwear. 'Oh, god what kind of freak is this,' Kuwabara asked himself in despair as he got more than a good look at the demon private parts. From what he had caught a glimpse of it seemed that the demon had no gender. When Kuwabara looked up at the demons face he was studying him like a bug under a microscope.

"Did you like what you saw?" the demon asked Kuwabara with a smirk on his face.

"What are you talking about?" Kuwabara snapped as he felt his face turn red with embarrassment.

"Why it is easy. You humans think that you are superior to us that everything has to be modeled by what you see yourselves as. Well in the demon world things are very much different. There are some that are like you, but then there are some that are just bred to be slaves. Some like myself can chose to have a gender or we can chose to hide it away when we don't need it."

"So you are saying that some how you can make your privates go away?" Kuwabara asked with a puzzled frown. Kuwabara had no clue what this demon was talking about, but if it kept him distracted then he would just try and ask intelligent questions to keep the demon off guard long enough for him to get free or for his friends to find him.

The demon vigorously shook his head," No that is not what I'm saying," he snapped as he stood back up. It seemed that the time for asking had come to an end.

"But I would just like to know more about the demon world!" Kuwabara cried desperately trying to keeping the demon talking just a little bit longer, but it was not to be. As the demon turned and walked back toward the fire where a long plain wooden staff lay on the ground, Kuwabara started to get an uneasy felling in his stomach as he watched the demon bend down and pick the staff up, but the only thing the demon did with it was to stir the fire. When it seemed that the demon had lost interest in him Kuwabara settled down to try and catch a little bit of sleep. He knew that in his condition he would not be able to go anywhere even if he had been untied, but what he was wondering about was why the demon had transformed into a giant if he was just planning on leaving him alone. What Kuwabara didn't realize was that the demon had managed to sidestep his question of how they did their transformation.

When Kuwabara drifted off to sleep from a combination of the drugs and exhaustion, the demon got up from where he had been sitting and walked over to finish transporting him to the demon world. The only reason they had transformed was to let their master know that they had captured one of the spirit detectives and that they were on their way to him. Because of their bond with their master he knew the minute that something happened to them. Some how their master had known almost the minute that the detectives had been sent to bring him back in. They had been hoping to catch the other human, but this one would have to do. As he created a portal to the demon world he made sure to mask the energy just enough that even if they were close to them they would head in the wrong direction. The minute he stepped through the portal he knew that something was very wrong, but before he could react something slammed into the back of his head. Just before he lost consciousness he felt the weight of the human being lifted from his shoulders.

'We are so dead when our master finds out we have lost the human,' he thought to himself as he slipped into darkness.

"Thank you, Kome and Gelrd, you have spared me the trouble of going to the human world myself," Jode laugh to himself as he walked off with his prize. He knew that their master had been having problems lately ever since he broke out of the Spirit World jail, but he had had no idea that he had stooped to eating humans. 'Oh, well it's not my problem he will just have to find another human, this one is mine.' Poor Kuwabara remained oblivious to the changing of hands not knowing the strange twist that his life was about to take.


	8. 8

disclaimer: don't own

a/n: sorry it has taken me so long to update, but this chapter was hard for me to get started on. I think I earsed the begining about six times. And something still seems off about it, but I'm tired of dealing with it so here it is I hope it is okay.

"Kurama are you done yet?" Yuusuke asked, as he shifted from foot to foot wanting nothing more than to go after the demons that had taken Kuwabara.

Kurama turned to face Yuusuke after he got what he wanted from the tree, "Yes, Yuusuke as it turns out there was no need for me to manipulate my energy; this tree has no residual memory of the plans that were made."

Yuusuke looked at Kurama with a confused look on his face, "I don't have a clue what you are talking about."

"It's simple. When they used this tree as a ground it left faint traces of memory behind, but when they put the block on the tree it canceled out any memory that was left."  
"So, you are telling me that we have know way of knowing where they have taken Kuwabara?" Yuusuke asked starting to look angry.

Kurama looked thoughtful for a few minutes before he answered, "There might be one way, but it requires the cooperation of Hiei and the strength of Kuwabara's mind."

"What do you mean?" replied Yuusuke

"Well, when Hiei got the jagan eye it gave him the power to control people, and it also gave him telepathic abilities, so if we can get him to try may be he can reach Kuwabara and find out where they have taken him."

"I think Kuwabara can speak telepathically," Yuusuke informed Kurama sounding hopeful.

"Explain," Kurama told him.

"When we had to rescue Yukina from that crime lord, Kuwabara was able to talk to her telepathically," Yuusuke explained.

"Then we just might have a chance of finding him, but it will have to wait until tomorrow night," Kurama said as he looked up at the lighting sky.

Yuusuke gave him a perplexed look when he said this, "What are you talking about if we wait that long then it might be to late by then."

Kurama gave him an apologetic look, "I'm sorry Yusuke, but where we are right now it is to risky to look for him. When it gets light there will be hikers all over this mountain, and we cannot afford to get any humans involved in this. Another thing is that we have know idea where Hiei is."

"I guess you are right, but I don't feel right about leaving him like this," Yuusuke said regret clear in his voice.

"I know I feel the same way but there is nothing we can do."

"Sorry to interrupt you guys, but Koenma needs a report from you two before you can go home and get some rest," Boton spoke up.

Both of them looked at her in surprise, they had been so caught up in what to do about Kuwabara and Hiei that they had forgotten she was there.

"Won't Koenma still be in bed at this hour?" Yuusuke asked.

"Yes, he might but this seems more important than letting him get his beauty sleep," Boton replied as she hopped up onto her oar.

Kurama and Yuusuke nodded in agreement.

When they got to the spirit world it still looked like night time, but even at the late or earlier hour there were ogres hurrying all over the place. Boton led them to Koenma's office and told them to wait while she went to get him. While they waited they both wondered why she didn't just send an ogre to fetch the young prince. But they kept their thoughts to themselves, because they had more to worry about than whether or not Boton and Koenma had something going on. It seemed kind of wrong in a way though, because they were used to seeing him in his toddler form most of the time. They had started noticing something was different a few months before. It seemed that whenever they were both in the same room together Boton acted even more ditzy than she usually did and Koenma was in his older form even when he's in his own office. Before Yuusuke could open his mouth and possibly say something that would cause embarrassment for all involved the door opened revealing the two in question.

As they walked through the door Kurama discreetly looked them over to see if their clothes were in there proper order. They looked normal for how early it was in the morning. As Koenma walked passed him to get to his desk, Kurama continued to look him over hoping to find an answer to his questions, but there was nothing there to give him any clues. Kurama put it to the back of his mind vowing to find the answers later when they had Kuwabara back, and he found out what was wrong with Hiei.

"So what brings you two here this early in the morning?" Koenma asked as he hopped up into his chair.

Yuusuke looked at him in surprise, "Are you telling me that Boton actually managed to keep her mouth shut about something?"

"I'm afraid I didn't give her much of a chance to tell me anything," Koenma calmly said as he folded his hands on top of his desk.

Kurama gave him a suspicious look, but passed up the opportunity to ask him what he meant by that. And before Yuusuke could open his mouth to demand an explanation Koenma changed the subject.

"Well, are you going to tell me what brought you here?" Koenma demanded after several moments of silence.

"Right," Yuusuke said nervously as he scratched at the back of his neck, "Kuwabara has been kidnapped by the minions of the demon that you sent us after. Apparently the demon is hungry for humans, so a trap was laid and Kuwabara tripped it."

"What! The demon I sent you after was a plant eater not a carnivore," Koenma cried as he leapt up onto his desk.

"Well it seems that the plant eater ate a plant that did not agree with him and it screwed with his DNA."

"What are you saying? That this demon got a hold of a plant that made him want human flesh?" Koenma asked as he looked at them in disbelief.

"That's what Kurama told us," Yuusuke replied.

Koenma looked at Kurama for an explanation.

"Like Yuusuke said before, the demon had an allergic reaction to a plant he ate. So now he is even more of a priority for us to capture, because of his hunger for human flesh," Kurama answered calmly as he moved closer to Koenma's desk.

"Yes, but it will be even worse if he manages to get into the human world."

As he was saying this Kurama and Yuusuke where giving each other uneasy looks, they knew that they had to tell him that his fears had already been realized, but they didn't know how to tell him without it sounding worse then it was. Finally they reached a silent agreement and Kurama spoke up.

Kurama looked at Koenma and cleared his throat, "Koenma, I hate to tell you this, but the demon has already found a way into the human world. That is where we were when Kuwabara was taken by that trap."

Koenma looked like he was about to have a heart attack when Kurama told him this. He knew what kind of demon they were after and if he was now hungry for humans then that made him even more unpredictable. Usually all they had to do was find the choosiest harvest of plants and he found near it, now though they had to find out what kind of humans he preferred and stake out the area. But he might not fall for such a trick again after all that was how they captured him before. As Koenma sat there trying to figure out what to do he noticed that Hiei wasn't with the rest of the team.

He looked up at Kurama and asked, "Where is Hiei? It seems that even though he doesn't like Kuwabara he is still his team mate."

Kurama shook his head, "I don't know here he went. While we were trying to get information from the tree that the demon used he left in a fit of temper."

Koenma looked confused, "What does a tree have to do with Hiei disappearing?"

"Right, that is another thing we needed to tell you. It seems that the demon has found a way to make portals in the human world using local plants as a ground until he gets a good feel of the land," Kurama told Koenma as he stifled a yawn.

"Great just another thing we have to worry about," Koenma growled as he shifted to get off of his desk, but before he could complete the movement the ground started shaking forcing Koenma to grab the edge of the desk so that he wouldn't be thrown to the ground. The shaking only lasted for a few seconds before it stopped. When it was over everyone looked at Koenma for an explanation, but to their surprise Koenma did not look scared or confused, he looked very angry, but when he noticed them looking at him his expression cleared and went back to his normal one.

"Koenma, sir what was that?" Boton asked as she picked herself up from the floor. Kurama shot her a look of surprise as he too got up from the floor. When Boton had started to speak Kurama noticed that she did not sound at all surprised about the shaking, but as she got farther into her question her voice changed. There was definitely something weird going on, but from the look on Koenma's face he was not about to start answering their questions. Maybe what ever it was was not serious enough to involve the spirit detectives, or they where just using their most powerful force to deal with any problems that might have risen.

Koenma looked at them before he cleared his throat, "There is nothing that you two need to worry about we have everything under control, but I think it would be best if you two just go home for now. I will have my intelligence crew look for any sign of Kuwabara's ki signature in both the human world and the demon world."

Kurama and Yuusuke both gave reluctant nods before turning to walk out the door. As they were walking down the long hallway they looked around trying to find the source of the shaking, but nothing seemed to be out of place. And Kurama knew from when he broke into the palace that there were security cameras all over the place so they could not risk talking about their suspicions. When they finally got out of the palace they took off for the human world.

Yuusuke turned to look at Kurama from his place on the stairs, "I will talk to you later, but right I'm so tired that if we started talking I would probably fall asleep in the middle of the conversation."

Kurama nodded goodbye, then he turned and started walking home. They had landed in front of Yuusuke's apartment building and Kurama lived about a mile or two from Yuusuke, so he had a little while before he got home. He looked at the sky and was able to judge that it was about seven in the morning, and he knew that when he got home his mother would be waiting for him with all kinds of questions about where he had been who he was with, and if he was in any kind of trouble. As he was thinking about the likely confrontation, he changed his course, he knew of an abandoned building that he could sleep in with no trouble. (Bad Kurama, Bad) my sister put this here when she was looking over my story, I thought it was funny so I left it.

a/n: I will try to get my next chapter up in about a week or so, but if it gives me as much trouble as this one did,thenit will probably be another month. I hope not. but please review.


	9. Chapter 9

disclaimer: don't own

I know that it has been forever since I have updated but I have about run out of ideas for this story. Ifanybody is intrested I could really use a beta reader. My e-mail adress is If you are fimilar with Graviation also that would be great. Thanks, snowball3.

Kurama had decided to bed down in an old, unfinished house. He usually went there when he needed to get away from everything that was going on in his life. The reason that the house was only partially finished was because when the original owners had been building it they had decided that the location was not what they wanted at all, so they sold the property to some old rich guy with too much money to burn and not enough family to benefit from it, and had moved farther out, toward the sea. Kurama had started asking around about the place when he saw that it was never going to be finished. When he found out about the elderly man he decided that the place would be perfect for a private place to train. Although the property was in the middle of the city, the house itself was sitting about a mile or two back from the main road. The property itself was heavily wooded and almost nobody came to take care of the land. The house itself was falling down in many places, but there was one room that had been completely finished, before the original owners had left. When Kurama saw this, he figured that they had done it this way so that they could move in and work on the house without having to drive all the way there every day. But Kurama was thankful that they had at least finished that much of the house, because it gave him adequate protection from the elements when he needed it.

About seven hours later Kurama was awaken by something passing through his wards. He stood up quickly and pulled his rose from his hair just in case he was about to be attacked. When he felt the familiar flicker of Hiei's demon energy he lowered his hand and sat back down to wait for Hiei to make his appearance.

"What are you doing here Hiei?" Kurama asked as he stretched to get the kinks out of his back from sleeping on the floor.

Hiei said nothing at first, but after awhile of just looking at Kurama he said, "I have been thinking about some things."

Kurama gave him a curious look, "What things have you been thinking about?" he asked looking at Hiei curiously.

Hiei heaved a sigh and looked up at the ceiling, looking like he was trying to gather his thoughts before answering Kurama's question. Finally he looked back at Kurama, "I have given some thought about telling my sister who I am," and in a quieter voice, "and what having I have been feeling about you." As Hiei said the last part, he ducked his head and looked down at his hand where he was plucking at his cloak.

Kurama frowned at the way Hiei was acting. When Hiei did not look back up at him, Kurama got up from the floor and walked over to where Hiei was sitting. He sat with his legs crossed in front of Hiei, then he reached out and forced Hiei to look at him. "What's going on with you, Hiei? In all the years that I have known you, you have never acted like this."

"I don't know, but what I do know is that I have never felt like this in all my years of being alive. I want my sister to know who I am, but on the other hand I am happy with the way our relationship is."

"Well, why don't you tell her and give her the choice of deciding if you are deserving enough for her love. She has been looking for you for many years, and she too grew up in the demon world, so for all you know your history would not disturb her one bit."

"I guess you're right, but I will have to wait until we get Kuwabara back to even broach the subject with her."

"You're right, but what was the other thing that you were talking about?"

Hiei gave him a cautious look, "What are you yakking about?" he snapped as he edged away from Kurama, forcing him to drop his hand which had been preventing Hiei from dropping his head.

"You know what I'm talking about. You mentioned something about trying to figure out what you're feeling for me," Kurama said as he edged closer to Hiei unfolding his legs so that he was knelling in front of Hiei giving himself more room to move.

"I'm sure you are mistaken. Now would you move back before I knock you back," Hiei snapped as he made a move to get up, but before he could complete the move Kurama had put his hands on Hiei's shoulders preventing him from moving. "What the hell are you doing?"

Kurama gave him a slightly unsettling smile before he leaned close enough to Hiei that he could feel every breath Kurama let out. "I'm going to see exactly how you feel about me."

"And how pray tell will you be able to do that?" Hiei inquired in a haughty voice.

"Did you forget, I'm kitsune I have an excellent sense of smell," Kurama replied as he slowly pushed Hiei back so the he was reclining with his back pressed against the wall and Kurama looming over him.

"No, I did not forget that you are a kitsune, but how in the world will that tell you anything?"

"Because I can smell arousal and other bodily fluids that you might make."

Hiei made a face of disgust, while trying to keep his nerves from getting the best of him. Normally if he was in a situation that made him uncomfortable then he would just pull out his sword and chop the aggressor to pieces, but because Kurama was his team mate that would not be advisable. Of course Hiei completely ignored the fact that he was starting to see Kurama in a new light.

"So, you are telling me that if I respond to anything you are going to do to me it will tell you if I have feelings for you?" Hiei asked as he raised his eyebrows in disbelieve.

Kurama gave a slow nod, "Yes, that is exactly what I'm saying."

"Kurama, don't be stupid just because I become aroused does not mean it has anything to do with you kissing me. I hate to tell you this, but my cock is not to particular about who it rises for."

Kurama gave Hiei a smile that clearly said, I know something you don't know, but this time he did not say anything just continued to look at Hiei.

Hiei grew even more uneasy when he saw this smile. He knew that Kurama was up to something, but for the life of him he could not get through Kurama's defenses enough to find out what he was up to. Before Hiei could put anymore thought into what Kurama's intentions were, Kurama closed the remaining distance between their lips. Hiei gave an embarrassing squeak at the unexpected action before he unconsciously relaxed into the kiss. In all his years of experience he had very rarely been kissed. In his experience a kiss meant that your partner was someone that you trusted and cared about. Usually if he needed any kind of physical release, he either took care of himself or he paid someone to let him screw them. He never stayed in one place for to long, so he had learned that it was easier to keep others at a distance. When he was forced to stay in one city by Koenma it was the first time that he stayed for any length of time in one place. Not counting the time when he had to recover from the jagan implantation or when he was living with the group of bandits. He came back to himself when he felt Kurama's tongue pressing for deeper access to his mouth. He almost snapped his teeth closed on Kurama when he decided to let him in, just to see what it would be like to kiss someone that knew what they were doing.

Kurama had at first just lightly rubbed his lips against Hiei's, giving both of them time to get used to the feel of the other's lips on them, before he pressed a little harder against Hiei. At first Kurama kept the kiss chaste before he slowly run his tongue along Hiei's bottom lip. When Hiei parted his own lips, Kurama pressed forward taking the kiss deeper than anything he had experienced in seventeen years of living as a human. At fist it was slightly awkward, because Kurama was out of practice and Hiei did not have that much experience with kissing. All in all it was not that great of an experience for either one of them, but they both knew that when they got used to kissing one another, and they were more comfortable with the new turn that their relationship had taken, then maybe it would be something to brag about.

They pulled back, both breathing harder than usual and both with an obvious reaction to what they had been doing.

Kurama looked at Hiei with a smug look on his face as he sat back and tried to get his body under control. "I think I proved right there that you at least find me remotely attractive, and have some kind of liking for me."

"No, I think it just proves that I'm young and in good working order," Hiei growled as he stood and stomped to the other side of the room keeping his back to Kurama.

"Deny it all you want, Hiei, but you will admit to me that you at least like me well enough to consider me as your lover," Kurama said as he walked over to were he had laid his jacket the night before.

After Kurama put his jacket and shoes back on he turned to look at Hiei's back. Deciding to change the subject he asked, "Have you had any luck finding Kuwabara?"

"Yes, but the problem is, is that he is no longer in the human world," Hiei replied turning around to face Kurama internally grateful that Kurama had changed the subject.

"Do you know where they have taken him then?"

"No, but I do have my spies looking for him, and before you ask I tried to communicate with him using my jagan, but they have either warded him against using telepathy or he is drugged."

Kurama looked surprised that Hiei had thought about Kuwabara's ability to use his mind to communicate, but looking at Hiei's face he thought it best not to ask how Hiei knew that Kuwabara was telepathic.

"Good, hopefully they will find something before it is too late for Kuwabara. Meanwhile I need to go home and get some fresh clothes and clean up a bit."

"Won't your human mother be home, after all I figure since you are in such a dirty place that you did not want to talk to her."

"Since today is Saturday, she and my stepfather will be out buying groceries and other things that we might need," Kurama replied as he walked toward the door. When they got outside they noticed to something did not feel right. They looked around and at first they could see nothing wrong, but as Kurama was smelling the air he noticed an all to familiar smell. As he looked across the gravel drive way he saw that there were more birds that there normally where, and they seemed to gathered all in one spot. Kurama frowned as he looked to where the birds' presence was heavier, and as he looked closer ha saw what looked to be a body lying on the ground. He looked at Hiei and nodded toward the body. Hiei to had noticed the body about the same time that Kurama did, so he already had his sword pulled out. They dropped into a defensive stance and looked around for the possible culprit of dropping a body off. When they saw nothing but trees and birds they dropped their stance and walked over to the body being sure to keep an eye out just in case they were walking into a trap. As they got closer it became very apparent that the body had long since died. There was a foul odor in the air indicating that the body had already started its decomposition. They both cover their noses with their arms as they bent down to see if they could identify it. From what they could see it was a young woman about fifteen to sixteen years of age, and she had clearly been homeless by the shape her clothes were in.

Kurama looked at Hiei, "Does anything look out of place to you?"

Hiei again examined the body before shaking his head," No, it looks like a normal dead body to me."

"What I mean is it seems that she was dumped here."

Hiei looked at him in surprise, "Why do you say that?"

"Because there is blood or fluid around the body for one thing, and if you knew a lot about this city you would know that a person like this would not be this near to the upper class people."

"But why would some one dump a body here and you not realize when you came here?" Hiei asked.

Kurama looked thoughtful for a moment before his face gained a look of utter shock, and he snapped his head toward Hiei. "Tell me Hiei did you notice this body here before you woke me up?"

"Of course not I would have told you if I had seen anything." As Hiei was saying this he started coming to the same conclusion that Kurama had. Then his face too gained a look of shock.

"Exactly," Kurama said when he saw that Hiei had reached the same conclusion that he had. "It seems that the demon we have been sent to catch has found a way to monitor our every movement. I think that this body was dumped here while we were distracted."

Hiei's face gained a slight red color before he looked away from Kurama and back at the body, as he did he noticed a piece of paper sticking out of the woman's pocket. He reached over to grab it but when he did a bird landed on his hand and started pecking at him. Hiei yelped and tried to shake the bird off but it was stubborn and kept flapping around pecking him on every surface it could reach. Kurama almost passed out from lack of air as he tried to keep from laughing at Hiei's expense despite the gravity of their situation. He did though use the bird's distraction to get the piece of paper that Hiei had spotted, and as he read over it Kurama could feel the blood leave his face. Hiei finally got the bird to leave him alone by knocking it upside the head with his closed fist, and rendering it unconscious. When he looked back toward the body he saw that the paper was gone, so he looked toward Kurama. Only to see him swaying where he knelt.

"Kurama, are you all right?" Hiei asked as he leaned closer to look at Kurama's face.

Kurama shook himself out of his shock to look at Hiei, "I am fine, but I need to get home right away," he said as he thrust the letter into Hiei's hands before he took off toward his home. Hiei watched him leave with a bemused expression on his face, then he looked down to read the letter to see what had spooked Kurama. When he read the letter his eyes grew to twice their normal size, before he stuffed it into his cloak and took off after Kurama. It seemed that not only was the demon able to track them and keep them from noticing, it seemed that the demon also had confidential knowledge of their personal lives.


End file.
